Drawing Basic Shapes

Six tools will get you through most drawings. This chapter covers each one, and — just as usefully — the rhythm that every tool shares, so the dozens you have not met yet already feel familiar when you get to them.

Prerequisites

• A drawing open, and a rough idea of the parts of the window — see The Pingendum Window.

The rhythm every tool shares

Learn this once; it is the same everywhere in Pingendum.

1. Start the tool. Type its short code and press Enter — L for Line — or click its button on the tool palette. The button turns amber while the tool is running.
2. Read the context bar above the drawing. It names the command, says what it wants from you next, and lists the options with the letter that picks each one.
3. Give it points. Click them, or type them — see Typing Coordinates and Values.
4. Finish with Enter, Space, or a quick right-click.
5. Or back out — U takes back just the last point, Esc abandons the whole command.

That short code in step 1 is called the command's alias. This documentation writes each tool as "Line — L", and the alias is what you type.

Tip: Enter repeats the last command

Finished a line and want to draw another? Just press Enter with nothing running. It is the fastest loop in the program, and worth getting into your fingers early.

Selecting is not a tool

There is no "Select" command to turn on, which surprises people arriving from drawing apps.

With no command running, the drawing is already in selection mode. Click an object to pick it, drag a box to pick several, press Esc to clear. See Selecting Objects.

Line — L

What it draws. Straight segments, joined end to end. Each segment is a separate object, even though you drew them in one go.

How to use it:

1. Pick the first point — click it, or type it (0,0).
2. Pick the next point. Or point the crosshair in the direction you want and type a length (200) — the crosshair gives the direction, the number gives the distance.
3. Carry on picking points. Press Enter, Space or a quick right-click to finish.

What you will see. As you draw, each segment shows its length and angle on screen. Ortho, Polar, object snaps and snap tracking all guide where the points land — see Drafting Aids and Precision Object Snaps.

Line or Polyline?

This question comes up constantly, and the answer is simple.

Line gives you separate objects — handy when you want to trim or erase one segment on its own.

Polyline gives you one object — handy when you want to offset, hatch, or move the whole outline as a unit.

Rectangle and Polygon both produce polylines.

Rectangle — R

What it draws. A rectangle, as one closed polyline, set out by two opposite corners.

The quickest exact rectangle: start the tool, click the first corner, type 1200, Enter, type 800, Enter, then click the side you want it on. (A lone number typed at the second corner is taken as the width.)

Watch out for remembered settings

Fillet and Chamfer sizes stay set for the next rectangle. If one comes out with rounded corners you did not ask for, press F and type 0 to clear it.

Circle — C

What it draws. A circle — but there are six different ways to define one, and the first step of the command lets you choose. Whichever way you choose is remembered for next time.

About "tangent". A circle is tangent to a line when it just touches it, without crossing. The last two options let you say "make a circle that touches these things", which is far quicker than working out where its centre would have to be.

For those two, click the lines, arcs or circles themselves. Several circles usually fit the description, so Pingendum makes the one that touches nearest to where you clicked — click on the side you want it to land. U takes back the last click.

Each method is also a command in its own right: Circle: 3 Points can be found by name in Find a command, sits in the Draw ▸ Circle submenu, and appears if you hold the palette's Circle button.

Arc — A

What it draws. An arc — a piece of a circle.

By default it goes through three points: where it starts, a point along it, and where it ends. That is the easiest way to draw one by eye. The other eleven ways are reached from the context bar, and they exist because real drawings usually pin down an arc by its centre, its radius or its angle instead.

Two conventions that will save you confusion:

• A positive angle goes counter-clockwise. A negative one goes clockwise.
• A negative radius or chord takes the longer way round — the big arc rather than the small one.

Continue (N) is the one to remember. It carries on smoothly from whatever you drew last, which is how you get a clean transition from a straight line into a curve — no constraints, no guesswork.

Polyline — P

What it draws. One object made of straight and curved segments joined together. Pick points as you would with Line, then press Enter to keep it.

Why you would want one. Because the whole outline behaves as a single thing: offset it, hatch inside it, or move it, in one action. A room outline, a kerb line or a hatched area is usually a polyline.

While in arc mode, these pin down the next arc only: Second point (S), Angle (A), Center (E), Direction (D), Radius (R).

Because the width can taper, polylines are also how you draw arrows and leaders by hand.

To change a polyline after you have drawn it, use Polyline Edit (PE) — see Cleaning Up Sketches.

Point — PT

What it draws. A point object — a small mark at a position. It places one at each click or typed point, until you press Enter or Esc. U takes back the last one.

What it is for. Points are reference marks, not geometry you would ever print as a feature. The Node object snap catches them, which makes them ideal for setting out: mark the spots first, then draw to them exactly.

If you place points and cannot see any, this is almost always why: how points look is one setting for the whole drawing, in Format ▸ Point Style, and the default is small. Change it there.

See also Divide (DV) and Measure (ME), which place points along an object at equal divisions or at a set spacing — covered in Expanding Your Shape Vocabulary.